With this blog, I am planning to offer, as regularly as possible, critical observations on the scholarly and popular literature analyzing the nature of archives or contributing to our understanding of archives in society. I hope this blog will be of assistance to anyone, especially faculty and graduate students, interested in understanding archives and their importance to society.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Dead Violins and Documents

Ever read a book that you can’t quite tell if it’s a put-on or not? Well, Rohan Kriwaczek’s An Incomplete History of the Art of Funerary Violin (London: Duckworth Overlook, 2006), ISBN-10 1-58567-826-0, falls into this category for me. Rather than trying to summarize this odd little book, let me reproduce the publisher’s blurb:

“During the Protestant revolution in Europe, a new kind of music emerged, one that ultimately sought to recognize the deceased and to individuate the sense of loss and grief. But the tradition was virtually wiped out by the Great Funerary Purges of the 1830s and 40s. Kriwaczek tells the fascinating story of this beautiful music, condemned by the Catholic Church for political as much as theological reasons, and of the mysterious Guild of Funerary Violinists that, yes, defends its secrets in our time. This is unquestionably one of the strangest books any publisher has ever risked publishing. Discussing the evolution of European culture, musical forms, and society’s changing attitudes to mortality and the emotional effects of music upon the soul, this is a dark and magical history.”

It is not a particularly well-written or organized book, with historical chapters followed by chapters of varying lengths on important personages in the funerary violin tradition, and including even claims by the author that he might be the object of death threats. The book is heavily illustrated, including some reproductions of portraits, book title pages, and documents, with many clearly looking like fakes. So, readers beware. If this is a parody, it is a good one.Why mention this publication in my blog? Throughout this odd history there are references to archives. The author notes at the beginning of the volume how he meets a fellow musician who talks to him about the Guild of Funerary Violinists. “After a couple of meetings, where we discussed the Funerary Aesthetic, and the terrible events that befell the Guild, I was almost ready to leave for good, but then mention was made of the Guild’s archives,” and he begged for access to them. And he describes what he finds: “Never in the history of record-keeping has there been a more chaotic, disorganized or neglected archive than this. The conditions were atrociously damp, pages were rotting, trunks were falling apart on top of each other, objects were stacked with all the coherence of a landslide, and I realized, at that moment, that it was my mission to preserve, collate and study whatever was not beyond saving” (p. xii). Even though most experienced archivists could identify archives that might rival this one for poor condition and organization, I was nonetheless hooked in to reading the book.

Throughout the Incomplete History we find references to various documentary tragedies and recoveries. There is the account of the discovery of a trunk in the ruins of a German church, in which “water penetration and the other unsavory contents of the said tomb had caused the trunk itself to rust heavily and the contents to be largely destroyed by mould” (p. 64). The destruction of records related to the funerary violinists in Europe during the two world wars is commented on a number of times (pp. 70, 73). Another comment is made about the production of early wax cylinders of this music by a French sound archivist (p. 75). Forensic analyses of some documents are also recounted, with reference to the detection of “finger and thumbprints” demonstrating that the individual in question had “unusually thick fingers of a man of his stature, which may account for the proliferation of double stopped fifths in his music” (pp. 90-91). Irregularities in how records of Guild meetings and activities are documented also enumerated (p. 105). Perhaps the most relevant comment to quote here is Kriwaczek’s conclusion that in the Guild’s archives are a “number of particularly tantalizing documents, which, though they potentially case considerable light on the dark period of the Great Funerary Purges, must nonetheless be treated with great caution, if not skepticism, as they have so far defied verification through any other sources” (pp. 119-120). This sentiment captures perfectly how the Incomplete History needs to be read.

My able assistant, Jane Ceol, who for some reason has been an opera singer and even likes that form of musical performance, was given the assignment of helping me figure out the degree of the hoax that this book promoted. She uncovered an article that includes the following information:

"In the sometimes highly strung world of the classical violin, they were today trying to get to grips with the fiddling of Rohan Kriwaczek.

A busker, violinist, clarinetist, flautist and bagpipe player, who graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1994, he brought murmurs of acclaim from the academic publishers, Duckworth, for his learned tome on the lost art of the funerary violin.

In 208 pages he told how the Guild of Funerary Violinists – motto Nullus Funus Sine Fidula (No Funeral Without A Fiddle) - had been established in 1580, received a Royal warrant from Queen Elizabeth 1, flourished under practitioners like George Babcotte and Herr Hieronymous Gratchenfleiss, and was almost wiped out by the 'great funerary purges of the 1830’s and 40s.'

Such was the fervour of the art, he said, that violinists duelled with each other at funerals to see who could wring the most tears from mourners.

Duckworth’s owner Peter Mayer, who also owns the American publishing house Overlook, reputedly paid Kriwaczek – acting president of the Guild of Funerary Violinists - more than £1,000 for the book. . . .

Except, as has now been discovered, there is, nor never was, any such thing as a funerary violin, nor a guild, nor a Royal warrant, nor a history, let alone an incomplete one.

Yesterday, as Mr Kriwaczek, 38, kept a low profile, Mr Mayer told how he had been taken in by him at a meeting last year.

'In he walks, deadly serious with his violin,' he said. 'I ask him a whole bunch of questions. He gave more or less credible answers to them. Some of them he said "I can’t answer Mr Mayer, because it is a secret society and it is dying out."'

'Maybe I have been fooled. It is possible. But it reads so extraordinarily serious and passionate. If it is a hoax, I can only say, I have my cap off.

I just thought, whether it is true or not true, it is the work of some crazy genius. If it is a hoax, it is a brilliant, brilliant hoax.'"

The article is from the Dail Mail and can be found at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=408588&in_page_id=1770. Thanks Jane. I might also add that my suspicion that this was a fake group had her going as well -- but she wrote in her email "You were right all the time. He sure fooled me!"

My able assistant, Jane Ceol, who for some reason has been an opera singer and even likes that form of musical performance, was given the assignment of helping me figure out the degree of the hoax that this book promoted. She uncovered an article that includes the following information:

"In the sometimes highly strung world of the classical violin, they were today trying to get to grips with the fiddling of Rohan Kriwaczek.

A busker, violinist, clarinetist, flautist and bagpipe player, who graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1994, he brought murmurs of acclaim from the academic publishers, Duckworth, for his learned tome on the lost art of the funerary violin.

In 208 pages he told how the Guild of Funerary Violinists – motto Nullus Funus Sine Fidula (No Funeral Without A Fiddle) - had been established in 1580, received a Royal warrant from Queen Elizabeth 1, flourished under practitioners like George Babcotte and Herr Hieronymous Gratchenfleiss, and was almost wiped out by the 'great funerary purges of the 1830’s and 40s.'

Such was the fervour of the art, he said, that violinists duelled with each other at funerals to see who could wring the most tears from mourners.

Duckworth’s owner Peter Mayer, who also owns the American publishing house Overlook, reputedly paid Kriwaczek – acting president of the Guild of Funerary Violinists - more than £1,000 for the book. . . .

Except, as has now been discovered, there is, nor never was, any such thing as a funerary violin, nor a guild, nor a Royal warrant, nor a history, let alone an incomplete one.

Yesterday, as Mr Kriwaczek, 38, kept a low profile, Mr Mayer told how he had been taken in by him at a meeting last year.

'In he walks, deadly serious with his violin,' he said. 'I ask him a whole bunch of questions. He gave more or less credible answers to them. Some of them he said "I can’t answer Mr Mayer, because it is a secret society and it is dying out."'

'Maybe I have been fooled. It is possible. But it reads so extraordinarily serious and passionate. If it is a hoax, I can only say, I have my cap off.

I just thought, whether it is true or not true, it is the work of some crazy genius. If it is a hoax, it is a brilliant, brilliant hoax.'"

The article is from the Daily Mail and can be found at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=408588&in_page_id=1770. Thanks Jane. I might also add that my suspicion that this was a fake group had her going as well -- but she wrote in her email "You were right all the time. He sure fooled me!"

About Me

Richard J. Cox is Professor in Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Information Sciences where he is responsible for the archives concentration in the Master's in Library Science degree and the Ph.D. degree. He has been a member of the Society of American Archivists Council from 1986 through 1989. Dr. Cox also served as Editor of the American Archivist from 1991 through 1995, the Society’s Publications Editor from 2002 to 2006, and he is presently editor of the Records & Information Management Report. He has written extensively on archival and records management topics and has published fourteen books in this area, winning the Society’s Waldo G. Leland Award in 1991, 2002, and 2005. He is presently working on new books on professional education and personal recordkeeping. Dr. Cox was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists in 1989.